Lose weight and exercise...that'll take care of half of it. The other half is just trying to be smart about it. I'm 6'3" and 170 lbs...and play tennis/workout 3-4x/week. However, I've still thrown my back out lifting a cat litter box! So, freakish stuff can happen. You can only help prevent what you can control, and diet and exercise are things you can control. Doing a lot of core work, specifically a lot of abs and stretching, will do wonders.